Not down to the bathroom scene yet - but the blood-letting turned out a bit prolonged, and I sort of like it, and you'll learn something new about Touga Yagari in the process, so I hope it helps you wait for more (which willbe already from home - hurray! - though I rather liked India). And I'm hopeless with the chapter titles - so, if anyone has any suggestions for the existing ones - go ahead and suggest, but I rather like the ones I have because they follow the "solitaire as a lone gem" theme.

And I still do not own nothing - and not VK either.

And I'm still very thankful for reviews but will answer them from home - now soon)))

"I'll ask you one question, Sayori-chan, and you'll have to answer truthfully", he said as he positioned the cup on the armrest farthest from the pureblood, who was now shivering almost unremittingly – which was a good sign, of course, but if the hunter could spare the boy at least part of the agony that accompanied the thawing – by now he was more than willing to do anything… well, almost anything…

Alright, and now if I put my wrist here over the cup…

"So, Sayori-chan, are you afraid of blood?"

"No, I'm not".

The answer came too readily, and it disturbed the hunter a little, he'd really prefer if the girl had given his question some thought. But she seemed calm enough, so maybe it was alright after all.

"Well, then," he continued decisively, "I'll hold my arm like this and you'll have to cut my wrist".

"Cut… your wrist?"

Oh, that left you shaken a bit? Good, because here I was thinking you are unnaturally cool…

"He needs blood…" he explained simply, but even before he finished speaking the hunter had to turn away, so that the only part of his face the girl could see would be the one covered by the eye-patch. For some reason the simple phrase felt too intimate to him, too revealing…

You are getting damn mellow, Yagari, damn too mellow for a hunter…

He didn't know why the concern he felt for the pureblood, the concern he'd die before admitting – was troubling him so much… He was supposed… no, his whole life had taught him to distrust vampires, to fear them – with a kind of fear that only made your aim truer and your instincts more alert… So, alright, he cared for Zero… But Zero was not a vampire in his eyes – not by nature, or at least – not by birth… and he had been his pupil long before it all happened… But caring for a pureblood – even if weak and defenseless – was not his sort of thing… it was damn Cross-Kaien-ish kind of thing…

"I know he needs blood," the girl said meanwhile, "but wouldn't it be easier if you just let him… No, I know, I know," she interrupted quickly as Touga spluttered indignantly. "First, he obviously cannot do it himself right now, and second, he is a pureblood – and his bite would… well, you know… OK, I'll do it."

But she hesitated – the knife in hand – almost bringing it to Touga's wrist, then lowering it again… till his arm started shaking, being kept outstretched over the cup like this… besides it was pretty uncomfortable to try and hold the shivering vampire from sliding single-handedly.

"I thought you told me you aren't afraid of blood, Sayori-chan?" he asked with heavy sarcasm, forgetting momentarily that he had been initially prepared to do it himself, in case that she said she was.

"It's not that!" Indignation added color to the girl's normally cool demeanor, and he remembered how she had rebuked him earlier, back on their path to the lake. "It's not about blood… I… I just ever had to cut anybody before…"

She was right, of course, he was demanding too much from her, and till now she never failed to deliver. Whatever else, unfairness was not one of traits Touga liked in people – more so in himself.

"Never mind", he told almost gently, taking the knife out of her unresisting hand, "I can do it myself. Only," the hunter couldn't help teasing her a little – if only to snap her out of thinking about her recent 'shortcoming', "first, you'll have to keep this young man from sliding from me, since both my hands will be busy, and second, you'll have to hold the cup under the wound – so I hope you still answered truthfully – about the blood. That's my blood, you know, I wouldn't want it to spill everywhere and go to waste."

The girl looked at him sharply, as if to assure herself that he indeed wasn't angry with her – a small sound – almost a beginning of a "thank you" formed on her lips, but she just nodded in understanding and scurried off to his other side – to press her little body into the thrashing vampire to keep him in place.

Cutting his wrist with both arms outstretched over the vampire's body was not an easy task, but he managed to deliver two deep enough crisscross cuts, and started pumping with his fist as soon as he felt the cold edges of the cup press to his skin to receive the flow… and he let the knife slip to the floor and turned away, because he… well, because he…

"Thank you, sensei," he heard the girl speak out softly, and his eyes went to where she still was helping to hold the pureblood, even though now one of his arms was free he could do it himself. "Thank you the more, since I see now you are… you do not care for the sight of blood yourself…"

His head jerked aside – but not before he felt the red-hot blush creep across his cheeks and neck, and it took an effort to look back into the girl's serious and – damn it – way too considerate eyes as he admitted something not even all of his closest friends were aware of (but which she guessed anyway) – the voice coming as a dark croaking growl – full of deep shame…

"Not… afraid… 't makes me nauseous… but… I manage…"

Yes, he managed alright – he managed to cut open his wrist right now, and he managed to bandage his own and his comrades' wounds many times over the years, and nobody needed to know that he chose the gun over the blade – as his preferred weapon – because it made it somehow more remote, because the person whose blood you spilled was far enough from him… and what with the kind of shot he was and the kind of vampires he usually had to fight – there was more dust spilled than blood… besides it was normally easier to forget the discomfort in the rush of the battle – and if he threw up afterwards – nobody minded it… actually – many did, because of the dust – which, ironically, didn't affect him at all… So… yeah… he managed…

"Yes, you do. Admirably so", the girl's voice came as an echo of his thoughts, and he felt unaccountably comforted with her acknowledgement. "And you can stop pumping, the cup is almost full. Just hold your hand wound-up, I'll bandage it in no time. Only let me put the cup down somewhere".

And she did indeed – calmly, quickly and professionally… nice girl… ah, but he'd thought it already…

With his both arms free now, the hunter pulled Kaname's body a little up, cradling the boy's head in the crook of his elbow, face up, as he took the cup and tried to pry the vampire's tightly pressed lips open.

Now that it was in the cup – the sight of blood didn't affect the hunter quite so… well, he could imagine… even if his hunter perception cried that it wasn't… but well, he could imagine it was just… tomato juice?

Always hated the thing… because it looked too much like blood?

If only the boy would open his lips and drink it and be done with it…

"Come on, kid," he urged, pushing the cup between the stubbornly unyielding lips, "Come on, you know you need it… Come on, open up for me, kid!.."

And then the slender body in his arms went rigid, frightening the hunter at first until he realized that it only meant – the vampire had awakened and was now fighting down the pain and the shivers with all he could – more so, because the wet streaks on his cheeks must've revealed to him just how utterly he succumbed to them – while unconscious. Touga's gaze wandered higher up the vampire's face, to where the wet girlish lashes spiked around two half-opened tortured eyes, but the lips of the pureblood parted in a little amused smile, and a familiar – self-assured, if a little shaky voice drawled quietly:

"Why, sensei… this sounds so awfully gay…"

Damn, Touga felt like he was about to water up himself – so good it was to hear this arrogant voice again, and he turned away, pushing the cup deeper into the opening the smile provided, letting the blood spill into vampire's mouth.

"You… just drink this up… vampire…"

He knew beyond doubt that the levity of tone was forced, that Kaname was still in a great deal of pain right now, and if his hunter's senses screaming of how frighteningly weak and defenseless the body in his arms was – were not enough, he needed only to watch the slow and painful way in which the pureblood sipped the blood – a little by a little – where by all rights he should've been gulping it down hungrily. No, things were far from right with the pureblood yet…

And again that elusive memory slipped through his mind – too fast and unclear for him to catch…

The pureblood finished all of the cup nevertheless, licking the few last drops from its edge, then running the tip of his tongue over his lips fastidiously, sighing softly as he let his head fall back on the hunter's elbow – as if it was a piece of extremely hard work he had just finished. Which – in his current condition – it probably was.

"Thank you for your blood, Yagari-sensei. I trust it was yours, and not Wakaba-san's?"

"Was mine", the hunter confirmed gruffly.

"Then thank you again…"

The dark lashes fell back onto the pale cheeks, but the hunter knew the vampire was still conscious, even as his face relaxed a little as the pain gradually subsided under the influence of the blood he took… And then Kaname muttered under his breath – not to anyone really – just to himself and the world in general: "God, I feel like shit…" – and it was spoken in such a helplessly surprised voice, so without the usual Kaname-poise, and was such an utterly normal teenager thing to say… that the hunter felt… he felt…

…damn, he isn't crying for no damn vampire… damn, Kaien, old fox, you hear me?.. because I'm not repeating it under no damn condition… you were right, old man… it is not right if our children have to fight and suffer forever… no matter what race they belong to… it is just not damn right…